First Time Home Buyer - need advice

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

---

jaybird201 wrote:

Depending on whether you're looking to apply for a 15-year fixed or a 30-year fixed, your boyfriend MIGHT be able to apply for the mortage by himself. If he did that, only HIS income and only HIS scores would be taken into consideration. This would both help and hurt. Since only his scores would be taken into consideration, and since his are higher, you'd probably get a better rate. However, he might not be able to qualify for the mortgage with just his income, in which case you would have to apply for the mortgage together.

Whether or not he would be able to qualify for the mortgage with just his income, I can't say for sure.

---

It would be nice if the Mr. could just qualify on his income alone but unfortunately the debt to income ratio would be way to high in order to get an approval.

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

---

jaybird201 wrote:

Based on your boyfriend's credit score, if you put 20% down and are able to qualify for a mortgage with just his income, you could probably get a 5.5%-6% rate on a 15-year or 30-year loan from a credit union with competitive rates.

---

If they were financing $417k or less you'd be dead on, but conforming jumbo loan amounts have a higher interest rate by about .375-.500%.  Plus on a 15-year fixed the payments would put their debt to income ratio a bit too high to be eligible for the conforming jumbo.  Credit unions can definitely be competitive for straight up easy loans, but for anything out of the box, such as a conforming jumbo, or FHA jumbo, they usually lose their edge.

[Anonymous]

Just curious ... what kind of condo do you get for $580,000?  Prices differ around the country, of course, but for $580,000 you could get a mini-Mansion here in Texas (with a backyard and a pool).  Are you at least on the subway line?

Also...you mentioned your dad would be living with you.  Is there a time constraint here?  That might affect which way you go.

Message Edited by Alternative on 07-28-2008 01:15 PM

[Anonymous]

$580,000 gets us a 2bed/2bath. That's the average price in our area. The condo is 5-10 mins walking distance to public transporation and gets you into NYC in about 20-30 mins. This is also a full service building (elevator (very important for my dad. He's 75 yrs old.), concierge and all amenities).

As for my dad living with us, no real time constraint. We live about 2 hours away from him and we want to give him an option if/when we wants to stay with us. He's currently waiting to sell his house for the market to pick up slightly to give us that money, but until then, he'll pay our common charges.

Message Edited by poyc on 07-28-2008 01:22 PM

[Anonymous]

Shane -- thanks for the correction.

Just food for thought for you guys. If you end up putting 20% down on a $580k condo, you'd be financing $464k of it.

If you were able to put 25% down on a condo for $550k, you would only have to finance about $412k, which just barely keeps you from having to apply for a jumbo loan with a higher interest rate and would save you a bunch of money in the long haul.

With real estate prices still falling, it might be worth it to hold off, save up some more money, let your credit scores rise a bit, and maybe apply for that mortgage as soon as you're able to put down enough so that you don't have to finance more than $417k.

What say you Shane?

Message Edited by jaybird201 on 07-28-2008 08:45 PM

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

---

jaybird201 wrote:
Shane -- thanks for the correction.

Just food for thought for you guys. If you end up putting 20% down on a $580k condo, you'd be financing $464k of it.

If you were able to put 25% down on a condo for $550k, you would only have to finance about $412k, which just barely keeps you from having to apply for a jumbo loan with a higher interest rate and would save you a bunch of money in the long haul.

With real estate prices still falling, it might be worth it to hold off, save up some more money, let your credit scores rise a bit, and maybe apply for that mortgage as soon as you're able to put down enough so that you don't have to finance more than $417k.

What say you Shane?

---

I think that's a good plan if time isn't of importance... it'll all come down to the OP's timeframe.